Lyrics for Animal as interpreted by mike

Animal Lyrics
One, two, three, four, five against one
Five, five, five, five against one
Said one, two, three, four, five against one
Five, five...five, five...five against one

Torture from you to me
Abducted from the street

I'd rather be...
I'd rather be with...
I'd rather be with an animal

Why would you wanna hurt me, oh
Oh, so frightened of your pain...yeah...ooh...

I'd rather be...
I'd rather be with...
I'd rather be with an animal
I'd rather be... (2x)
I'd rather be with an animal

I'd rather be...
I'd rather be with...
I'd rather be with an animal
I'd rather be...
I'd rather be with...
I'd rather be with an animal

Said one, two, three, four, five against one
Five, five...five, five...five against one
One, two, three, four, five against one
Five, five...five, five...five against one


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treestump
12-15-2001

Rated 0 
There are 2 interpretations of what this song's about:
1. the media's abuse and invasion of privacy of the band
2. gang rape of a woman

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emo_SavestheDay
04-27-2002

Rated 0 
treestump couldn't have said it better.

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lookn_2b_inspired
05-01-2002

Rated 0 
This song is about the bands hatred towards the media. They feel outnumbered and abused by them.

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aldeayeah
05-28-2002

Rated 0 
kickass mccready intro (like 'Go') of the song. check it out.

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merovak
09-25-2002

Rated 0 
i dont know about anyone else...

but i would rather be with an animal!

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JohnnyBlaze
04-11-2003

Rated 0 
Its gang rape, they have talked about it.
5 'animals', raping a woman.

'Torture from you to me
Abducted from the street'

'Why would you wanna hurt me, oh
Oh, so frightened of your pain...yeah...ooh... '

Very clear...

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Regos the Sane
04-14-2004

Rated +1 
Both meanings are probably right...most Pearl Jam songs are about more than one thing. Just on the band vs the media thing, when Eddie says the 5 against 1 bit, I think you can take it 2 ways: 1) Five guys from the media against Eddie and 2) Five guys in the band against one institution, as if everyone from the media is a generic journalist.

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SoBeR
04-25-2004

Rated 0 
Animal talks about some kind of relation ships when freinds keep making fun of of someone, or a couple who one of them keep talking bad instead of supporting the other...

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guitar0zero
07-04-2004

Rated 0 
five against one... the band and the manager vs eddie and his opposing views

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All5Horizons10
12-21-2004

Rated 0 
No, the song IS about gangrape. 5 guys against her. It's entirely clear, Eddie's even said it. "I'd rather be with an animal" get it?

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Bellyfull of Swans
01-15-2005

Rated 0 
five to one baby..one in five...no one here gets out alive...
oh wait, wrong song.

I too have heard the "rape" interpretation before.

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High_On_Lithium
01-29-2005

Rated 0 
Yeah...the raped girl would rather be raped by an animal than by these five fucking freaks that call themselves people.

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grungemonkey1990
03-19-2005

Rated 0 
i really can't add much, these guys have explained it all. great song, but i wonder why it was the first single off the album....Rearviewmirror would be a better choice.

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Androgynous
04-14-2005

Rated 0 
I have some recollection of seeing a clip of Pearl Jam live where Eddie introduced the song by saying "this song's about my mother, it's called animal".

I hate to think of it being about a gang rape. The topic is a world too dark for such a energetic song.

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tamary1216
04-16-2005

Rated +1 
You guys are all wrong. This song is about animal rights, get it - the song is called ANIMAL. the 5 against one thing symbolizes how humans poach and abuse animals, and the animals are outnumbered and defenseless. Eddie Vedder is saying that he would "rather be with an animal" than be with the humans in our society.

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1 Reply
i love JF
06-14-2005

Rated 0 
i knew i wasnt crazy not seeing the rape stuff as clear as everyone else here
but it could be about anything like someone said above you can have more than one meaning to a song

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Cornerstone
08-08-2005

Rated 0 
I'm just trying to make the rape meaning as clear as possible for those who do not see it. The first line "1, 2, 3, 4, 5 agaisnt one... 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 against one" then repeated. The counting up and then the reptition makes the listener aware that he is trying to make a point, the point lying in the numbers 5 against one.... similar to pack behaviour of an animal... "Torture from you to me... Abucted from the streets" This woman is being tortured by the 5 of them who abducted her from the street. That's usually how gang rape happens, except at frat parties, but those we'll leave those animals alone for now... "Why would you want to hurt me? Oh so frigtened by your pain" She, like everybody else who is not a savage fucking pig, can in no way imagine why these stains upon society would do this to her. Then she states that she is frightened by their pain, as a victim obviously would be. The pain she speaks of here could mean 2 things i believe, because she says "yor pain" which causes some ambiguity... it could refer to the pain that they choose to force upon her, or literally their pain, because it's obviously pain and aggression built up in their souls that cause those bastards to act that way, because nothing else could explain why a "human being" would want to do such things... Then the "I'd rather be with an animal..." This implies many different, yet relevant things. First, she'd rather be with an animal, obviously, is a slap in the face to her predators, spiting them because she would never willfully take part in the horrors they are putting her through, she'd rather be with an animal. Then it also goes to show what level of filth that these rejects are on, because their pack-like behaviour is being compared to an animal, and on top of that, in a way, not making them appear to be animals, but showing that they are worse, because animals don't even do that, and people should know better, making those predators less than both... indescribable forms of life.... scratch that; lifeless...
So hopefully you can all see now the dominant theme of rape...

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Reynard Muldrake
08-10-2005

Rated 0 
I agree with Tamary.

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i love JF
08-18-2005

Rated 0 
cornerstone i see your point and it seems to me that youve been reading too much anthoy burgees.
it is about rape it is about media it is about eds mother it is about animal rights and it is about the maneger of the band!!!!
think what you want to think about this song.
anthony burgeess always seems to have that in his books too.

this is a song that you dont have to look deep into to find the real meaninf cuz the real meanig is in your heart.

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Germain
12-20-2005

Rated 0 
I agree with "i love JF"

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longliveconrad
01-04-2006

Rated 0 
i think after reading the lyrics it is likely about rape. how on earth does this song link to the media??

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N0 C0DE 79
01-27-2006

Rated 0 
It links to rape because the media was always pressing into Eddie's life....

I assume they were trying to get to him so much, trying to get information about him so much, that he felt he was being violated...

You can equate rape with being one of the worst forms of violation imaginable, so along those lines, you can make the connection, that the media was "raping" Eddie of his privacy....

I always took the song differently however... or at least the intro....

VS came at a point in time when PJ were dealing with some pretty immense pressures, one of them was internal conflict within the band, seemingly how the band was against itself, 5 members of Pearl Jam, 1 band... get it...

Of course I know now that really wasn't the case..........

it was all Stone's fault remember? lol ;)

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lushco
01-31-2006

Rated 0 
the idea that the song is about rape is convincing. in the VS album sleeve 'torture' is written 'torch her'. it didn't make sense before but it seems clearer now. dont think vedder would have written it as such if there wasn't an implicit meaning behind it.

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Retribution
03-21-2006

Rated 0 
The rape connotation is obvious, but is probably a metaphor for something else.

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HowitZer
04-06-2006

Rated 0 
Thanks cornerstone. Not even animals gang rape like humans do. This really sealed the deal on the gang rape meaning and I have no doubt that's what it's about now.

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